The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Emergency Department Visits at a Canadian Academic Tertiary Care Center

INTRODUCTION: Public health response to the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has emphasized social distancing and stay-at-home policies. Reports of decreased emergency department (ED) visits in non-epicenters of the outbreak have raised concerns that patients with non-COVID-19 emergencies are delaying or avoiding seeking care. We evaluated the impact of the pandemic on ED visits at an academic tertiary care center. METHODS: We conducted an observational health records review between January 1–April 22, 2020, comparing characteristics of all ED visits between pre- and post-pandemic declaration by the World Health Organization. Measures included triage acuity, presenting complaints, final diagnoses, disposition, and mortality. We further examined three time-sensitive final diagnoses: stroke; sepsis; and acute coronary syndrome (ACS). RESULTS: In this analysis, we included 44,497 ED visits. Average daily ED visits declined from 458.1 to 289.0 patients/day (−36.9%). For the highest acuity triaged patients there was a drop of 1.1 patients/day (−24.9%). Daily ED visits related to respiratory complaints increased post-pandemic (+14.1%) while ED visits for many other complaints decreased, with the greatest decline in musculoskeletal (−52.5%) and trauma (−53.6%). On average there was a drop of 1.0 patient/day diagnosed with stroke (−17.6%); a drop of 1.6 patients/day diagnosed with ACS (−49.9%); and no change in patients diagnosed with sepsis (pre = 2.8 patients/day; post = 2.9 patients/day). CONCLUSION: Significant decline in ED visits was observed immediately following formal declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic, with potential for delayed/missed presentations of time-sensitive emergencies. Future research is needed to better examine long-term clinical outcomes of the decline in ED visits during pandemics.